Washington: A panel in the United States has asked the government to continue its visa ban on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The panel said there was significant evidence linking Modi to the violence in Gujarat in 2002.
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its annual report has placed India in the Tier 2 Countries on religious freedom along with that of seven other countries Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia.
For the 2013 Annual Report, USCIRF has recommended that the Secretary of State to re-designate eight countries as countries of particular concern (CPCs): Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.
USCIRF also found that seven other countries meet the CPC threshold and should be so designated: Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. In its annual report, the USCIRF notes that Modi is the only individual against whom the US has so far used its visa ban provision related to religious freedom in March 2005 due to his alleged complicity in the 2002 riots that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,100 to 2,000 Muslims....
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06:28 AM, May 01, 2013
New Delhi: BJP on Tuesday said the acquittal of court Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in an anti-Sikh riot case should be challenged in a higher court and a Supreme Court-appointed SIT should probe the 1984 incident as has been done with the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the clean chit given to Sajjan Kumar should be appealed against in a higher...
09:19 PM, Apr 30, 2013
Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court on Wednesday issued notices to 21 convicts who were awarded life term by a designated court in 2012 in the post-Godhra Dipda Darwaza riot case on a petition filed by the SIT seeking condonation of delay in filing appeals against the verdict. A division bench of Justices MR Shah and SH Vora also issued notices to 57 accused whose acquittal by the designated court in the...
02:10 AM, Apr 25, 2013
Ahmedabad: A protest petition filed by Zakia Jafri seeking rejection of the SIT report giving clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the post-Godhra riots case is likely to come up for hearing in a local court on Wednesday. Zakia, wife of 2002 post-Godhra riots victim and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulbarg Society riots along with 68 others, had filed...
02:00 AM, Apr 24, 2013
Ahmedabad: Gujarat High Court on Thursday granted two days temporary bail to Babu Bajrangi, sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, as his wife is undergoing a surgery. A division bench of Justices MR Shah and SH Vora allowed Bajrangi's plea, filed and argued by his son Viren Babubhai Patel. He would be out of jail on April 20 and 21. A trial court in 2012...
07:04 PM, Apr 18, 2013
Mumbai: Shiv Sena on Wednesday asked the BJP leadership to clear its stand on the issue of its prime ministerial candidate and demanded that a meeting of the NDA be convened soon. The BJP ally, however, gave a clean chit to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi over the Gujarat riots, but said that by declaring someone's candidature, allies, who have been with BJP faithfully for so many years will go away,...
02:55 PM, Apr 17, 2013
Madhubani: Describing Nitish Kumar as "parrot of RSS", RJD President Lalu Prasad on Monday said Bihar Chief Minister was opposing Narendra Modi while praising LK Advani, though both are "communalists of the highest order". He told reporters that Kumar was befooling the minority Muslim community on the Modi issue. "Godhra riots took place in 2002 when Nitish was railway minister and he applied all the tricks in his bag to...
09:05 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Ahmedabad: A Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday moved the Gujarat High Court against a special court's judgement in a 2002 riot case in which 11 members of a family, nine of them women and children, were killed. The judgement in the Deepda Darwaza riot case was delivered on July 30, 2012. Designated Judge S C Srivastava had awarded life imprisonment to 21 people, a year in jail to a...
01:35 AM, Apr 06, 2013
Washington: The US has reiterated that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is welcome to apply for a visa to America and that his application would be judged on its own merits. "There is no change (in US policy)...he (Modi) is welcome to apply. All visa decisions are made on a case by case basis, and I'm not going to prejudge it here," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. Her statement...
12:36 AM, Apr 05, 2013
Abhishek Kapoor's film 'Rock On' went onto win the National Award but that did not deter the director from experimenting with a new star cast in his next film 'Kai Po Che'. ...
01:47 PM, Mar 13, 2013
Social activist Teesta Setalvad on Monday claimed there is "strong" evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom the SIT has given a clean chit in the post-Godhra riot case, in a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, wife of slain ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. ...
04:27 AM, Feb 19, 2013
An eventful year in Gujarat saw Narendra Modi convincingly retaining power and emerging as a strong contender for BJP's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general elections besides a slew of judgements in the post-Godhra riot cases that convicted many, including former minister Maya Kodnani. ...
12:38 PM, Dec 30, 2012
Muslims are seeking a new narrative in Gujarat beyond victimhood The land of historic Gandhian satyagrahas like Kheda, Bardoli and the Dandi March, Gujarat ...
08:37 AM, Dec 12, 2012
A Supreme Court bench on Monday referred to a larger bench the plea of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's widow seeking documents on probe by Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the Gulburg Housing Society riot case in Ahmedabad in 2002. ...
10:47 PM, Dec 10, 2012
The US on Thursday said that there has been "no change" in its policy with regard to granting a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. ...
01:26 AM, Dec 07, 2012
Ahead of the Gujarat polls, a group of 25 American lawmakers have urged the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to continue denying Narendra Modi visa. ...
10:29 AM, Dec 04, 2012
In a setback to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a group of 25 American lawmakers have urged the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to continue denying visa to the BJP leader, stating that his government has not adequately pursued justice of the 2002 riot victims. ...
08:29 AM, Dec 04, 2012
In a setback to the activists seeking investigation against Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots case, a Gujarat court on Tuesday rejected Zakia Jafri's protest petition against the SIT closure report giving clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister due to lapse of time. ...
05:23 PM, Nov 27, 2012
Jamnagar: In a major setback to suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, a local court on Thursday filed charges against him and six policemen who are accused in the 1990 Khambalia custodial death case. The Gujarat High Court had on October 23 rejected the petitions of the accused policemen challenging the Jamnagar sessions court's earlier order of dismissing their discharge applications in the case. The High Court had also directed the...
06:53 PM, Nov 08, 2012
Ahmedabad: Just before the Gujarat elections, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) - the sister organisation of the ruling BJP, which is part of the Sangh Parivar - has raised its voice against Chief Minister Narendra Modi government's handling of the 2002 post-Godhra riot cases. The Gujarat government recently approached the high court to enhance the punishment of 27 riot convicts from life imprisonment to death penalty. Terming it as an "anti-Hindu"...
05:57 PM, Sep 07, 2012
